Dressing room off limits for Levein

IAN CATHRO has guaranteed that Craig Levein will not be in the dressing room when Celtic visit Tynecastle tomorrow as the Hearts boss seeks to end the controversy surrounding the director of football’s role once and for all. The debate regarding Levein’s position has been resurrected after he was pictured shuttling notes to Cathro, via Under-20s coach Jon Daly, during a 2-0 defeat against Aberdeen a fortnight ago. It was also reported by broadcasters BT Sport that the former Scotland boss had entered the dressing room at half-time. Several high-profile figures suggested Cathro was being undermined, with former club captain Steven Pressley insisting match-days should be left to the manager — and ex-Tynecastle boss Gary Locke urging Levein to explain the dynamic. However, Cathro has insisted that Levein entering the dressing room is far from commonplace and explained that they were seeking privacy away from the television cameras. Asked whether Levein could be in the dressing room tomorrow, Cathro said: ‘No, he never is. That’s not normal. It was a strange situation at Aberdeen and it’s better to deal with that directly. ‘What’s normal is that we reach half-time, I’ll bring all the staff together and we’ll spend a couple of minutes just going through what we need to go through — our feelings, our thoughts and so on. ‘Instead, in the game against Aberdeen, there was no access to any private area and there was a camera following us. ‘We didn’t know that the story (regarding the passing of notes) had already started and the camera comes in. ‘In order to avoid the creator of the story (BT Sport), we probably added to the story by going for privacy in the back of the changing room.’